The plan for today was to catch a film at the Tokyo International Film Festival, but I got to Shibuya only to find out that the movie was sold out, so I ended up doing some record shopping instead. I learned my lesson and bought a ticket for a film on Friday. Part of the Shaw Brothers retrospective, it’s a HK musical from the 60s called HONG KONG NOCTURNE. Looking forward to seeing it. Here’s what I picked up today.

Picked up at the new Apres-midi Selecao store (curated by the owner of Cafe Apres-midi) in Shibuya’s Parco:

The Cinematic Orchestra – EVERY DAY – I’d been wanting to hear this for a while, every since I heard a single a few months ago, and I finally got the chance as it was in a listening booth. Great atmospheric Portishead type stuff.

Wunder – WUNDER – I have no idea what this is, and I just picked it up because I liked what I heard at the listening booth (it’s great because at the store there are chairs in front of certain booths, so you can sit down comfortably to listen to the CDs). Imagine Jim O’Rourke type explorations, but a bit more melodic. Sore of like a more experimental Cinematic Orchestra. The only info in the sparse CD packaging is that the CD is from Germany.

Picked up in the sales bin at Zest Records in Shibuya for 400-500 each:

Czerkinsky – VARIATIONS SUR NATACHA – Remixes of songs from his CZERKINSKY album.

Various Artists – SUBA TRIBUTO – Suba was the hip producer in Brazil who produced among other things Bebel Gilberto’s first album. He dies in 99, and this is a tribute album with collaborations, remixes, lives, etc. I’m listening to it right now and it’s really good. The new Brazillian sound.

Various Artists – ASIAN LOUNGE – A 2 CD compilation on the Irma label. Chillout stuff with Asian flavour.

Picked up at Disc Wave in Ikebukuro:

Ajico – COMPLETE SINGLES – Band made up of UA and the main guy from Blankey Jet City.

For those wondering what today’s picture is refering to, Minimix is a tiny (postcard sized) French-Japanese zine that comes out 4 times a year. I’ve been picking it up (on the 7th floor of the Tower Records in Shibuya) since I first moved to Tokyo 4 years ago and still enjoy it. It usually has a few photo essays, some rants from French/Japanese taxi drivers, an interview session between French/Japanese journalists, and more, all in a fun little package. You can order it from the website, as well as read some of the content there.

Another flash e-zine I found, called This is a Magazine. This one has lots of stuff in it, and I guess you can also buy a print version.

Just posted a new TOKYO BOY log. A few pics from my day in Shibuya yesterday with friends. As mentioned, the new Cafe Apres-midi store really is nice, and I do wish I could get some new CDs from there.

I also want to note that Momus has posted a new entry in his record making log. This one details his collaboration with his “reproducer”. Just makes me even more anxious to hear the new album. I should get a preview at the live show he’ll be giving in 2 weeks at a record shop in Kichijoji. Definitely looking forward to it.

This past Friday I picked up two new Japanese magazines. PAPER SKY is a rather new publication (the latest issue is #3) by the same publisher as TOKION, and has in fact replaced that magazine in Japan (TOKION is now only published for North America). It basically covers the same sort of things as TOKION did, but from a travelling perspective. The other magazine is called +81, and it usually covers things like fashion or music, but from a design perspective. Every issue has a certain theme, and this issue (#17) covers independant record labels in France and England. Both these magazines are completely bilingual (Japanese and English).

Saltfreak has some beautiful photography, and they are presented in a very elegant and soothing manner. I love the way that each pic goes from bw to color. I really need to start playing around with Flash.

Lots of cool stuff (pictures, Lomo photography, QT shorts) at Pan Chan’s Panism site. I’ve got to get a Lomo camera. I really like the high-contrast pics it takes.

Jamie Ferguson‘s site has these brilliant little illustrations. Nice simple design for a site also.

I’m still spending way too much time with my new iMac. What an amazing machine! I still can’t get enough of that huge 17″ widesreen display. I’ve been busy moving all my stuff from my iBook (which isn’t too hard to do, since you can just put it in Target Firewire Mode and plug it directly into the iMac), as well as ripping a whole bunch of CDs, which I couldn’t do anymore on my iBook since I had no more space. The speakers that come with it are also really nice. I’ve been listening to music constantly ever since I got it. Next step is to start playing around with video again, and do some editing. I’ll probably try doing a little video project this weekend.

Outside of the Mac experience, I can say that it’s finally getting pretty chilly in Tokyo. No more t-shirt weather. But that means that it’s time again to start taking hot baths after I wash myself, which I sort of missed during the Summer. You gotta love those high Japanese bathtubs.

This weekend sees the Tokyo International Film Festival start, and I would like to see a few movies that will be presented, especially since they’ll all be shown with English subtitles. All depends on what I can afford really, since passes tend to be expensive, and the finances are sort of tight these days. I’m definitely looking forward to the RESfest, which takes place at the end of November here in Tokyo. Better start saving now.

My favorite track right now is one done by a friend of mine (Marc Xavier LeBlanc) under the name My Lost Era called “And Then Some…” It’s got a nice Stereolab/Unrest groove to it. Me likes.

Sorry, no time today for a new pic. I’m very, very busy playing around with my new iMac. More on everything later.

A new TOKYO BOY is up. You can also access it by clicking on the “tb” icon to the right of the picture on the main page.

It was certainly a strange trip.

Saturday started out a bit crazy as the alarm clock didn’t wake us up at 6:30 as planned. We were planning on leaving our place at around 7:15, and luckily I woke up by myself at 7 (after maybe 3-4 hours of sleep). We rushed out the door to still try to catch our Shinkansen train wich was leaving from Omiya station at 8:14. But the way there was a also screwed as the rapid train we though we could catch from Akabane wasn’t in service that early on a Saturday, which means that we got to Omiya at 8:15. Since our tickets were non-reserved seats, it meant that we could easily catch the next one, which came at 8:50 (with non-reserved seat tickets, you can use them anytime on any train for 3 days, for a one-way ride of course). The way to Niigata was also a huge letdown. On top of being overcast, most of the trip was spend in dark as the train goes through all the mountains. Niigata itself was, well, boring as hell. I’ll admit that we didn’t really have time to do anything as Yuko was busy at the university pretty much the whole day. When we got back to the station at night, at around 8-9, we found that the bus terminal was already closed. Luckily, some people told us about a night train that left at 11:30, which is what we took to come back. I barely slept all night, and we arrived in Ikebukuro at 5 the next morning. What a long day it was.

But things went very well for Yuko at the symposium. She was pretty much a hit with her lecture, and got to meet a lot of very important people in the field, who were all very intrigued by her subject matter. This is certainly going to give her a good boost in her academic career.

To finish off, let me say that I never want to go to Niigata again (well, not the city at least, I here the prefecture is supposed to be nice).

TOKYO BOY now finds a permanent home at the OPi8 website with the latest log I just put up. All of the previous logs will also soon be available from the same page.

As I write this I’m eating yakitori (grilled chicken normally served on a stick) from a can that I just picked up at the combini (convenience store). The can even comes with little sticks to poke your meat with. I love Japanese “speed” food.

I’ve fallen in love with a magazine called EAT. It’s a Japanese magazine about food presented in a bilingual format. I never thought I would become so interested in a magazine about food, but this one is definitely not what you would expect. It presents the subject matter from a very different perspective, one that incorporates a very strong design sense. One of the feature articles is an interview with the noted cyberpunk author William Gibson, in which he talks about foods that he likes, along with other subjects (like his next novel). The issue’s theme is speed in food, and it looks at it from several very interesting perspectives. Even the cover is very nice. It’s what you see here. What looks like a sticker is supposed to be the cover of a cup of noodles, and you can actually peel it off to reveal the insides. Very nice. I think I’m even going to get some back issues.

We’ve had a slight change of plan and we’ll be leaving for Niigata on Saturday morning by Shinkansen, which should give me the chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery on the way there. Can’t wait.